April Fools, Louella!
by Proud Degrassian
Summary: Joey Jeremiah is always a class clown but when he takes things too far on April Fools Day, things get a little more hectic for a hardworking, dedicated Custodian.
1. Chapter 1

"Come on guys, hurry up. We don't have all day you know!" a voice suddenly snapped through the foggy darkness.

"Joey, are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, what if your calculations are incorrect and someone shows up earlier than expected?" We might get caught." another voice rang with concern.

"We won't get caught Snake...trust me! The custodians don't start showing up for work until six, teachers around seven or so. We've got plenty of time to do this!"

Three shadows stood before Degrassi Junior High School holding bags of toilet paper and other supplies they had brought for this exact day which happens to be April First.

"Alright, are you guys sure we got everything? The shaving cream, the paint and feathers?"

"For the eleventh time Joey, yes!" the third voice replied with an annoying sigh. "Can we just get this over with? My Grandparents would kill me if we get caught!"

"Wheels, again we won't get caught alright? Now, you and I will take our positions in the back of the building while Snake, you handle the front."

"WHAT? Joey, you expect me to chuck rolls of paper over that?" Snake asked while pointing towards the school.

"Shoot, maybe we should have thought this through first." Joey muttered.

"Great, now what are we suppose to do?" snapped Wheels.

"Hey, we can still do this...we just have to toilet paper the trees instead!"

Joey then ripped open a package of toilet paper and pulled out a roll, immediately chucking it over a nearby branch.

"Come on, start pitching in! The more we have doing this, the faster we can get this done!"

Reluctantly, Wheels and Snake began to join in, each taking a roll and chucking them over the branches.

It only took them fifteen minutes to completely cover the trees that lined near the main entrance of the school.

"See, I told you guys we wouldn't get caught. We're only fifteen minutes in and there's not a single staff member in sight! Come on, we still got this side to do." Joey announced as he began making his way over to the right side of the school yard.

"JOEY...!" Wheels and Snake chided as they rushed over to Joey's side. "We've done enough! Let's not over do it."

"What do you mean 'not over do it'? That's the whole point of April Fools Day!"

* * *

Meanwhile just across the street from the school, 22 year old Louella Hawkins was in the process of getting ready for another day of work.

She got into her janitor's uniform, fixed up her spiky blond hair then headed downstairs for a cup of coffee.

As she waited for the kettle to boil, she went over to the calendar and changed it from March to April then turned on the TV in the living room for some background noise.

' _And Good Morning Toronto. It is now 5:30 AM on this wonderful first day of April. Hope you haven't had too many pranks pulled on you so far this morning, however Mother Nature seems to be pulling one weather wise as we start off the morning at plus four degrees but later on dipping down into the minus range with a chance of some flurries by this afternoon...'_

'Great...just what we need, more snow!' she muttered to herself as she walked back into the kitchen upon hearing the kettle whistling on the stove.

Carefully she poured the hot water into her coffee cup, gently stirring it's contents until it was fully mixed and then sat down at the counter. 'I'll be glad when this winter is over with so we can finally shut down that darn malfunctioning furnace for the year. Doubt the School Board will do anything about repairing it this coming summer through, as they usually do every year despite the constant complaints. The day they began cutting back on proper maintenance and routine checkups, I knew it was only a matter of time before those boilers began to malfunction.'

Since November of last year, Degrassi has had more than it's fair share of malfunctions when it came to their boiler and heating system.

It all started with the furnace, which at first functioned normally but then gradually got worse by Christmas, constantly running nonstop which made the entire school feel like a mid summertime's heatwave at times.

If that wasn't bad enough, just recently the second boiler decided to join in on the malfunctioning festivities as well, prompting sudden power failures and constantly setting off the fire alarm system.

So far, the school had already received multiple warnings and four nuisance related fines from various fire departments across Toronto as a result of them.

With today being the first of April, Louella knew this wasn't going to be one of those 'easy going' days.

'I am so not looking forward to work today...I'm not in the mood for any ridiculous pranks, especially when I'm already stressed out as is dealing with that annoying boiler system.' She continued as she finished up her cup of coffee then checked her watch. 'Time to face the music and head off for work!'

She got up from the counter and placed the cup into the sink to be washed later on then headed back into the living room to turn off the television, put on her jacket cause it was still cold outside, grabbed the keys to the school and placed them upon her belt then began for the door, making sure it was locked behind her.

* * *

The sounds of a door closing and jingling keys grabbed the attention of Wheels, who was just about ready to grab another roll of toilet paper from the bag.

"Guys, it's Louella! Quick, hide!"

Joey and Snake quickly grabbed their bags of stuff as quietly as they could and rushed over to the side of the building where hopefully they wouldn't be seen by the janitor as she made her way towards the street.

"Are you sure that's Louella, Wheels?" Joey asked.

"Of course I'm sure...who else works at this school with spiky blond hair like that? I didn't know she lived just across the street!"

"Shh, she's making her way over here." Snake asserted.

The three boys watched as Louella carefully crossed the road onto school property.

At first she didn't even seem to take notice of the mess that surrounded her as she made her way towards the main entrance but then she walked right into a strand of toilet paper, startling her and nearly causing her to fall back on her butt!

'What the?' she growled under her breath as she looked around to see the entire school yard was covered in toilet paper. '...Goofballs! What a great way to start...Ugh, what else can go wrong today?'

Both Joey and Wheels couldn't help but snicker as they continuously watched Louella take it all in before storming up the stairs towards the main entrance, unlocking the door and headed into the school.

Once the coast was clear, Joey motioned for Wheels and Snake to follow him.

"Where are we going now Joey?" asked Wheels.

"Inside..."

"Inside the school? Joey, we'll get caught for sure if we go in there and by the looks of things, Louella isn't exactly in the best of moods right now!" Snake quavered.

"Snake, would you please stop worrying? I guarantee you we won't get caught alright! We just have to keep a low profile until school starts...besides, if we stay out here we'll be caught for sure by the other custodians who are just now arriving for work. I could have sworn I saw a flash of light coming from the other end of the parking lot so come on, let's get a move on inside!"

Quickly the three boys headed up the steps to the main entrance and walked in, carefully watching for any signs of Louella as they neared the hallway.

"Alright, the coast is clear...let's head up to the second floor. I'm sure we'll be safe up there until around eight, eight thirty." Joey ordered as he began making his way towards the stairwell on the right.

"I really don't like this idea Joey..." Snake continued voicing his concern as he and Wheels quickly followed Joey up the stairs. "Exactly where would we be safe upstairs? Most of the doors are locked..."

* * *

Meanwhile down in the Boiler Room, Louella was hard at work trying to figure out how she along with the rest of her crew were going to deal with the toilet paper incident while keeping up with their already hectic schedules.

"OK, so if I get Lou, Scott, Gregory and Josh out there cleaning up the toilet paper mess, that will only leave Sue, Tammy, Mary and I to handle the rest of the maintenance. Just as long as the boiler system doesn't act up too much today we should hopefully be alright..."

Just as she finished, the other custodians began entering the boiler room.

"Morning Louella! I take it you saw the mess out front...must have been done sometime in the middle of the night." replied Sue Jenkins, Louella's second in command custodian.

"Yeah...Needless to say, I am SO not impressed. But I just figured out how we're all going to handle this situation which I say is pretty equal so there won't be any complaints from either one of you! Lou Robbins, you along with Scott Nolan, Gregory Jackson and Josh Thomas will be outside handling the toilet paper mess as soon as there's daylight. Judging by how much is out there, I'd say it'll be an all day job unfortunately. In the meantime, Sue, Tammy, Mary and I will add on parts of your schedules to ours and continue maintenance inside the building. I just hope the boiler system won't be too much of a hassle for us today."

"Well Louella, we can't be too surprised considering today is April Fools Day. There's bound to be a few pranks pulled here and there." Gregory reasoned. "Which is why I think it's best that we all remain on our toes today! Who ever is responsible for this toilet paper incident, should they even attend Degrassi Junior High that is, may have other plans up their sleeve and if so, I suggest you guys watch your backs!"

"Gregory, I highly doubt anyone here at Degrassi pulled this prank. Maybe a bunch of students from Borden High did it, but we can't really point fingers cause we don't have any proof that it was them! What's done is done and we just have to deal with the consequences. Now come on guys...we better get started on the day otherwise we'll all be behind schedule. It's close to Six Fifteen now and we've got lots to do today!" Louella addressed as she lead everyone out of the boiler room.

"Not exactly the best way to start the day, is it guys?" said Scott as he was the last to leave.

* * *

Upstairs, the boys had no other choice than to hide in the Resource Centre since many of the other rooms were locked and there were no bathrooms to be had on the second floor of the school either.

"Great idea Joey...you better hope nobody decides to come up here, especially Louella. If she finds us, we'll never hear the end of it!" hissed Wheels.

"Relax Wheels, she won't find us. Trust me!"

"How do you know, Joey?" spat Snake. "Maybe this room might even be on her list of things in need of doing before School starts. Then what? There's really not that many places we could quickly go and hide in other than being under a table, but even that's not going to help us out much."

"Alright, fine. If it'll make you guys feel better, we'll find another place to hide. Come on." Joey declared as he carefully opened the door and checked out the hall to make sure the coast was clear, again. "Alright, it's clear...let's go. So where would be a great place to hide then? The gym might be out of the question, bathrooms are definitely a no go."

"What about somewhere in the basement?" Wheels suggested.

"Great idea Wheels...besides we need to be down there anyway to pull off the next prank! You are a genius!"

"Guys, I don't think that's really such a good idea!" Snake objected. "I mean, being extremely close to the custodians. We'll get caught for sure!"

"Not really Snake...the custodians are usually going in and out of the boiler room. Many other rooms barely get used down there, especially the broom closet near the right side basement doors. I doubt the right side of the basement gets used much anyway." Wheels added in.

Snake still wasn't so sure. "How do you know Wheels?"

"Cause I was once down there for most of the day when I didn't feel like taking anymore classes. It's what I tend to do now just to avoid the Old Bag nagging on me as to why I wasn't in school due to a phone call. As long as I'm present for the day and on school grounds, they have no reason to call home. The custodians had no clue I was even down there the entire time!"

"Well, then it's settled! Let's head on down into the basement! Around Eight O'clock we'll pull off the next prank and by then the other kids should be arriving for school as well so we can start hanging out in the halls more without getting caught! Snake, still got the supplies?"

"Yes Joey...I still don't think this is a great idea."

"Snake...where is your sense of humour, man? There's no harm in pulling a few pranks!"


	2. First Toilet Paper and Now This?

It was now getting closer to eight o'clock at Degrassi Junior High and yet there were still lots of things that needed to be done before the school day started.

For Louella, she still had the upstairs classrooms to do as well as disinfect all the drinking fountains and do the daily maintenance check/monitoring of the boiler system.

Any other day she would normally have had all of these tasks said and done by seven o'clock or seven fifteen tops and was either down in the boiler room or in the storage room doing stock inventory, but since someone decided to pull off a not so funny April Fool's prank by throwing toilet paper all over the place outside and making a massive mess of things, it's basically now thrown all the custodians behind on their usual routine schedules.

However, despite all that's happened so far, Louella still hasn't backed down from her plan that had been made earlier for the guys to handle the mess out front while she and Sue Jenkins, Tammy Hardison and Mary Fraser continued handling things on the inside.

"Are you sure you're going to be OK Louella? You _do_ have things well under control?" Lou Robbins asked before heading out to begin _'operation toilet paper clean up'_ alongside Josh Thomas, Scott Nolan and Gregory Jackson.

"I'm sure Lou. Don't worry about what's happening on the inside with us, just focus on the task out there and be careful on those ladders, alright guys? I really don't want to file any worker's comp reports today on top of everything else." Louella exclaimed as Lou headed out the main doors.

"Alright...if you need us for anything through, don't hesitate to holler!"

"Yeah...right!" Louella replied back, but it was mostly towards herself than it was to Lou as she glanced at her watch. "Darn, it's already eight o'clock and I still got lots to do before the kids arrive. The classrooms upstairs need a bit of touching up, drinking fountains need to be disinfected and then I got to check on those boilers...each classroom takes about fifteen to twenty minutes to finish, depending on how much needs to be done and technically I don't have fifteen to twenty minutes to spare at all today. Ugh...I sure hope the others aren't too far behind on their schedules as well, otherwise we'd really be up the creek without a paddle. I knew I had this bad feeling that today wasn't going to be the best of days...I so totally hate it when I'm right!"

Quickly, she headed up the stairs to get started on her next task in hopes of getting some of it it done before eight thirty at least, but she certainly had her doubts.

* * *

Down in the basement closet, the three boys waited quietly to pull off their next prank which happens to be the old bucket o' cream trap.

"I'm sure it's almost close to eight by now! What time is it, Joey?" asked Wheels.

"Well, it's kinda hard to see when you're in pitch darkness Wheels." Joey replied. "I'll have to open the door in order to get some light so I can see the time."

"Well, just be careful Joey. If anyone sees us, we're in big trouble!" Snake added as Joey carefully opened the door and peeked out.

"Snake, would you please stop fretting about getting caught? There's not a single soul in sight. It's now five minutes after eight, should we get things set up now or wait til eight twenty?"

"I think we should set up now while the coast is clear Joey." Wheels suggested as he stepped out of the closet along with Snake.

"Alright, let's do this...OK, what we need is a bucket and a ladder. Both should be in the boiler room." assured Joey as he opened the boiler room door and walked in, carefully looking around for the items needed to pull off the prank.

"Uh-oh...Joey, look!" exclaimed Snake as he pointed towards the window. "I don't think there's anymore ladders available. They're all being used outside!"

"Don't worry about it Snake. So we don't have a ladder? Big deal! We can still do this...now, where's a decent bucket we could use? I'm sure there's got to be one around here somewhere."

But just before Joey could find what he was looking for, the three boys were suddenly alerted to some noise outside and quickly hid between the two boilers just as Sue Jenkins came rushing in to get something from the Caretaker's office.

"I'm so glad I'm ahead of schedule, otherwise we'd really be up the creak without a..." they could hear her mutter as she quickly disappeared into the other room.

"Man, it's hot back here!" whispered Snake as he attempt to fan himself with his hand, but all he really was doing was blowing more hot air around him, making it feel even worse.

"Of course it's hot back here, we're hiding behind boilers. They're suppose to be hot!" replied Wheels quietly.

"Not this hot!" Joey added. "This must be the furnace boiler...no wonder the upstairs has been feeling like a mid-summer time's heatwave throughout the holidays til now! I thought Louella said she fixed it? Yeah, right...I'm starting to think she just said that only to get us all off her back about the heat!"

"Joey!" Wheels and Snake chided for the second time that day, being extremely careful not to raise their voices to the point of being heard, especially when there was a custodian nearby.

"Didn't she also say 'for the time being' through? Maybe she had fixed it but over the course of the months, it suddenly broke again! I think we should just back off and let the custodians be. They're going through enough as is." Snake declared.

Joey glanced at his watch, silently wondering how long this custodian was going to be. "No way! We've gotten this far, haven't we? Besides, I'm just starting to warm up! Man, how much longer is she going to be in there?"

As if to answer Joey's question, Sue re-emerged from the room carrying a bottle of cleaner in one hand and a few rags in the other as she quickly headed up the steps and out of the boiler room.

"Finally...now, a bucket. Where's...a-ha, there's one that's perfect! Snake, hand me the bag that has the shaving cream in it!"

Reluctantly, Snake did as he was asked and handed the bag over to Joey who then proceeded to pull out a can, take the cap off and began filling up the bucket with thick, white goop.

"This is going to be great! I wonder which custodian will get the drop? Personally, I hope it's Louella. She more than deserves to get creamed!"

"Joey, what has Louella ever done to you that deserves getting shaving cream dumped upon her head?" Wheels inquired.

"She called me a Goofball for no reason! You remember that, don't you Snake? When I asked if it was going to stay hot in here, she responded with a sarcastic 'Good Guess, Goofball!'. What kind of a janitor calls people names like that, let alone a student? Not really professional of her if you ask me!"

"Well, you did snap at her Joey." countered Snake.

"No I didn't...!"

"Uh, yeah Joey you did when you said 'So it's gonna stay hot like this', the tone in your voice sounded very angry."

"Snake?! Alright, so I was a little bit frustrated because of how hot it was that day I'll admit...but I didn't mean to snap at her, I swear! There...the last can is empty. Now let's set this up and get out of here! It's almost eight thirty now. We've got to get ready for class!"

Quickly Joey headed up the steps and carefully opened the boiler room door, first allowing Wheels and Snake to exit before trying to place the bucket right on the edge, but due to being so short, he could barely reach it.

"I still say this is a bad idea Joey, but here..." Snake offered, taking the bucket out of Joey's hands then ever so carefully placing it so that it leaned against the wall, keeping the door from closing!

"Perfect, thanks Snake! Now let's get out of here! See, I told you guys this plan would go off without a hitch...and you guys were scared of getting caught!" Joey laughed as they headed up the stairs towards their lockers located just outside Mr. Raditch's class.

"So, what time do you want pull off our next prank?"

"You still want to pull off more? Joey, I think two is more than enough." Snake replied objectively.

"Guys, you may want to keep it down...I can hear someone with a vacuum cleaner just down the hall in the resource room." said Wheels as he took off his jacket and placed it in his locker before grabbing some books he would need for his upcoming classes at Borden High. "Besides, Snake and I won't be back from Borden until approximately close to noon hour."

"Right..." Joey sighed dejectedly. "Heading off to high school. Man, I wish I could go with you guys...being stuck in this lousy place for most of the day gets really boring, especially when there's nothing to do but to hang out with these stupid little narbos! Repeating the eighth grade totally sucks!"

"Well, that's what you get for not studying and working hard on your assignments!" retorted Snake.

"Yeah Joey...most of last year had been spent fantasizing about becoming 'rock stars' and being famous. Not to mention bugging Stephanie Kaye to play at the Graduation Dance constantly. If you focused on the here and now instead of living in a dream world, you wouldn't even be in this mess!" exclaimed Wheels as the eight forty five bell rang, signifying that class would be in session very shortly. "Anyway, we've got to get to class...catch you at noon hour!"

"Yeah...sure." Joey muttered as he watched Wheels and Snake make their way towards the stairwell.

Just as Wheels pushed open the door and was about to make his way down the steps, Louella emerged from the Resource Room looking utterly exhausted, dragging behind her the vacuum cleaner.

"Morning Louella. Rough start today, huh?" he greeted upon seeing her in such a rough state.

"You could say that Derek...I'm not sure if you saw the mess first thing this morning or not but someone decided to pull off the old toilet paper prank out front. Who exactly did it boys, I don't know but if I were you, I'd watch my back at Borden today." Louella replied, taking a piece of paper towel she had hanging from her pocket and wiped the sweat off her brow.

"Thanks Louella, we'll definitely do just that! Come on, Wheels. We'll be late for class!" said Snake as he quickly began descending down the stairs.

"Yeah, sure Snake...Well I hope your day improves a bit...see ya Louella!" Wheels called as he quickly followed.

Louella scoffed at Wheels' comment as she then proceeded to put the vacuum cleaner away in the broom-closet.

"Hope your day improves...yeah, I doubt it!" She muttered to herself bitterly, not really caring that there were students within listening range nearby, although they were too busy getting themselves organized for class to care anyway. "Needless to say, this day can't possibly get any more worse but then again, I may have just jinked myself by saying that. Ugh, shut up Louella! Well at least I managed to get some of the rooms done up here...that's a good thing! I'll have to thank Sue for taking up the job of disinfecting the drinking fountains since I couldn't get around to doing them myself. Thankfully she was ahead of her schedule, although I haven't really seen Tammy or Mary since first thing this morning during our briefing. I hope they're doing alright...Anyway, time to check on those boilers!"

As she began towards the door to head down towards the basement, she suddenly bumped into Dan Raditch who was also looking a bit worse for wear himself.

"Oh, Morning Louella. What a great start to the day eh? Seems like you've also had it a bit rough yourself by the sight out front. Don't let it get you down, it's happened to me too this morning as well, reasons why I'm running a bit late." Mr. Raditch replied as he looked up to find Joey Jeremiah still standing next to his locker with a smug look on his face. "Mr. Jeremiah, shouldn't you be getting to your seat? Class has technically started despite that I'm running a few seconds late!"

"Yes Mr. Raditch...right away!" Joey avowed as he quickly headed into class, snickering all the way.

"Goofball!" Louella muttered, prompting a laugh from Dan.

"You clearly have a disdain for Joey, don't you Ms. Hawkins?"

"No...no, not really Dan. It's just that often times he does come across as a silly, annoying little brat. Sexist too! I can still remember my first encounter with him when he entered Grade Seven two years ago... anyway, you got a class to start...I got two malfunctioning boilers to check and maintain! I'll catch you later."

"You too Louella. I hope things start looking up for you a little bit at least!" He said as he made his way into the classroom. "Greetings, inspiring scholars!"

"Good morning, Mr. Raditch!" the class replied in unison.

"I was delayed...Joey, would you hand out the text books please? This morning class, we're going to be looking at essays. Who can tell me what an essay is?"

* * *

"Hey Louella..." Mary called out as she made her way across the basement hall towards the boiler room. "Sorry it took me forever to finish up the bathrooms. I so hate it when I'm way behind."

"Don't worry about it Mary. I'm sure many of us have been behind most of the morning so far, so it's no big deal! I've also been behind myself. Had to get Sue to disinfect the fountains for me since I was in the process of touching up the classrooms upstairs. I only managed to do a few rooms, not all of them since I didn't have much time but thankfully those rooms didn't need much cleaning..." stated Louella as Sue and Tammy also rejoined them in the basement. "Sue, thanks for disinfecting the fountains for me. I could have done it myself if I hadn't been so behind on my schedule."

"That's perfectly alright Louella, no sweat. I was ahead of my schedule anyway and thought I'd pitch in and help everyone else who was in need of catching up. I just now helped Tammy catch up on sweeping the halls. Mr. Lawrence is pretty ticked off about the toilet paper incident. He had asked me if any of us knew who had done it, but I told him we have no leads either. We're just as clueless as the rest of this school." Sue said perplexed as Louella reached for the boiler room door handle, causing the bucket that was leaning up against the wall to lurch forward a bit, making a small clunking sound that caught the attention of Sue, Mary and Tammy.

"Uh, Louella..." Mary began, trying to warn her boss as she looked up but it was too late.

As if in slow motion, the bucket began to tumble forward off the edge of the door and landed directly over Louella's head, spilling the thick shaving cream all over her, the walls nearby and the floor!

The three girls stood quietly in shock as Louella carefully pulled the bucket off before dropping it to the floor, wiping her eyes clear and spitting out what little got into her mouth.

"The old shaving cream in a bucket latched onto a door prank...we better get this cleaned up before it leaves a stain. Sue, get some rags, Tammy you go get some hot water, Mary, come with me...I'm going to need your help. I'll be right back guys!"

"Do you need another shirt Louella? I think we have extras in the Caretaker's office..." Mary offered as she followed Louella into the nearest washroom.

"No...this is fine. Just get some paper towels, damp them up a bit and carefully wipe what cream is on the shirt. I can get what's on the front, but that back that's where you'll come in."

"So, do you think there's any connection? The toilet paper out front and what just happened to you now?"

"You know something Mary, I think you might be right...and whoever is doing these pranks will get caught before the day is through! I guarantee it!"


	3. Shower Time and going too far!

"For your homework assignment class, I want you all to write a two page essay on achievement, what it means to you and what you hope to achieve once you finish high school. This assignment is due next week. That's all for now, on to your next class." Mr. Raditch addressed as the students began leaving.

Joey glanced up at the clock to see what time it was before placing his trademark fedora upon his head then headed out to his locker, contemplating rather or not to pull off prank number three by himself or wait until Snake and Wheels return back from Borden High.

"Let's see here, if I wait til noon hour, most of the day had been wasted away doing nothing. However, if I at least pull off one prank by myself, it probably wouldn't be half as much fun without Wheels and Snake being there alongside me to help out...but then again both had been such downers for most of this morning. Especially Snake, always voicing his concerns and being so worried about getting caught..." Joey mumbled to himself as he switched his English binder to Math. "If only there was a sign..."

" _Would Louella Hawkins please report to the school office immediately. Louella Hawkins, please report to the school office immediately."_ Mr. Lawrence's voice boomed over the P.A system, snapping Joey out of his thoughts as he slammed his locker shut then headed off in the direction of his next class, however he had _NO_ intention of going there just yet.

First, he had a little stop to make at the broom-closet located conveniently across the hall from the Math room.

"Yes, perfect timing! With Louella distracted at the office, that will hopefully give me enough time to set up my third prank, the old bucket o' water trick cause after all, she's probably in need of a 'shower' anyways to wash out all that shaving cream she just had suddenly dumped upon her head not to long ago!"

Once he arrived at the closet, he carefully waited for the other students to clear out of the hallway before quickly heading into the small room, making sure the door was slightly ajared due to the fact that many of Degrassi's broom-closets had the tendency to lock on the inside and that was something Joey did not want to happen.

"Now, for this prank I'm going to need this bucket here, some rope and of course, water. I just hope I'll be able to lift this thing up onto the top shelf once it's half full." he mumbled as he took the mop bucket that was sitting next to the sink and began filling it up with water, then he tied one end of the rope to the bucket's handle and the other end to the door's knob, making sure it was good and tight.

"Alright, that should be enough water, turn you off like so and now to carefully...place this... bucket...without...dumping it upon my...whoa...head...up...here...on...the top...shelf...like...so and... there. Phew! When Louella opens this door, instant soak city! And I'll be right across the hall to watch it all unfold too!"

After everything was in place, Joey very carefully opened the door so he wouldn't trigger the trap then squeezed his way out of the closet, closing the door behind him and quickly rushed across the hall into math class.

"Mr. Jeremiah, so nice of you to join us! Is there a reason why you're five minutes late coming to class?" scolded Ms. Schuyler.

"I had to use the men's room...when you got to go, you got to go!" fibbed Joey as he took his seat on the far right hand corner of the classroom, causing the rest of the class to giggle at the remark.

"Alright class, settle down now! Let's concentrate on our fractions...now who can tell me the answer to this fraction here?"

* * *

"Doris, before we get to the closet, just a word of warning that you may want to keep your distance when I open this door...the way things have been for most of this morning, who knows what we'll expect to happen here and I don't want you to get all messed up as a result of it as well." Louella warned as she and the school secretary Doris Bell approached the broom-closet that Joey had just been in only minutes ago to fetch last week's worksheet. "Like I said when I came into the office, we've already had two pranks pulled on us so far this morning alone. The first one being the toilet paper draped all over the tree limbs out front and then the old shaving cream in a bucket trap down in the Boiler Room when I was just about to do the regular maintenance check on the boilers. I still have the evidence of that all over my shirt and hair, despite my feeble attempts to clean it all off before Mr. Lawrence called me up over the P.A system...whoever is pulling these pranks, most likely has this closet rigged as well. I wouldn't put it past the perpetrator or perpetrators responsible for one second!"

Louella then reached for the knob and turned it, carefully opening the door which caused the rope to pull the bucket filled with water conveniently placed on the top shelf over, thankfully catching onto the door's frame as it tipped and spilling water all over Louella, the contents in the closet as well as the floor.

"Of course they had to use the mop bucket, didn't they?!" she sputtered as she frantically wiped the water from her face.

"Oh my! Louella, are you alright?" Doris asked concernedly.

"Yeah I'm fine, but now I am soaked...so to is everything else in this closet, the paper towels, the toilet paper, rags, various bottles of cleaner, oh man, even our worksheets...at least the bucket didn't come crashing down upon my head through, thank goodness. The door frame had caught it. Last thing I need is an already bigger headache on top of what I've already got!"

"Louella sweetie, you may want to get a dry uniform on ASAP before you catch a cold or something...even through it's extremely...wait a minute, is the heat still on? I'm starting to

feel a chill in here."

"Now that you've mentioned it Doris, yeah...it does. Darn it, the furnace must have shut off due to the lack of fuel. Ugh, none of this would be happening if only the part I had ordered over a year ago came in."

"When did you place the order again, Louella?"

"September 20th. It should have arrived two to three weeks later around October and yet here we are on the first of April and still no part to be seen! Must have gotten lost in the mail or something. This is just great, I've got a massive mess here to clean up quickly before someone falls and breaks their neck and a furnace in desperate need of being re-fired, otherwise the pipes in this building will freeze and then we'll have an even bigger problem on our hands. I'll head down to the boiler room and get one of the girls to clean this mess up as soon as possible, as for the worksheet from last week...here you go Doris. Sorry if it's a bit on the soaked side. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a furnace to re-fire and a boiler system to FINALLY check...that is, if nothing else goes wrong between here and the boiler room!"

As Louella left Doris to head back into the basement to deal with their faulty boiler system, Joey along with the rest of the math class could be heard laughing hysterically at the misfortune that had just taken place outside while Ms. Schuyler struggled to regain control.

"Joey, class...can you please settle down? What had just taken place outside the classroom is not at all funny in the least bit. Now...let's get back to work on our fractions. Class? Class."

* * *

"Tammy, Sue, Mary...I need one of you guys to head upstairs immediately! The April Fools' prankster struck again, this time it was the old bucket o' water trick in the broom-closet right across from the math room! I'm sure Ms. Schuyler's class got a real good kick out of it cause as I left Doris to head back down here, I could hear the entire class just laughing their butts off." Louella raged as she stormed into the boiler room. "First it was toilet paper, then the shaving cream and now a bucket of water...but not just any bucket. They had the audacity to use the mop bucket. As a result, I am now soaked to the bone and freezing!"

"Freezing? Isn't the furnace on? Shouldn't it be really warm up there and by warm, I mean SWEATING HOT?" Tammy inquired as she and the other two girls came to the caretaker's office door.

"You think it would be Tammy, but no. Thanks to me not being able to get to the maintenance check on time, the furnace ran out of fuel, there for shutting it down! The entire school is now on the verge of FREEZING and if I don't get it up and running as soon as possible, these pipes are going to start freezing as well which will then lead to no water and even more bigger problems on our hands. Something I technically DON'T REALLY need right now!"

"No Louella, come on. Let's get you out of that wet shirt before you catch a death of a cold alright? I'll handle getting the furnace back up and running and do the maintenance check.

Tammy, you and Mary head upstairs and clean up the mess outside the math room before someone goes and hurts themselves!" Sue ordered as she urged Louella into the office while Tammy and Mary began making their way out of the boiler room.

"Here honey, I think we have some spare shirts around here somewhere...Ah, here they are." Sue continued as she handed Louella a clean, dry shirt.

"Thanks Sue. This just hasn't been my day so far...first being startled nearly to death by a strand of toilet paper then having a bucket of shaving cream dumped upon my head followed by an unwanted, cold shower! I have to ask, what else can possibly go wrong today?"

"Don't worry about it now Louella, OK? Just take a load off, get into that nice, warm, dry shirt I just gave you and have a cup of coffee to warm your insides! I'll be right back."

As Sue left the office, Louella began taking off her name-tag and setting it down on the desk before undoing her top, quickly peeling away the wet, light blue fabric off her skin making her cringe and shiver.

"Darn it, even my pants are wet...not sure if we have any extra pants around here or not, and this shirt is just dripping with water. I can't really set this aside otherwise we're going to have water all over the place. Only one thing to do..."

Now only dressed in her high waist work-pants and undershirt, Louella stepped out of the office back into the boiler room to wring out her shirt by the drain located in the middle of the room, shocking Sue who was kneeling down in front of the strainer basket, carefully filling it up with oil to once again fuel the furnace as well as keeping the electrical boiler up and running.

"Louella...what are you doing? You're only dressed in your pants and undershirt...I'm sure the guys can clearly see right in here from the outside!"

"What does it look like Sue? This shirt is too wet to sit aside so I'm wring it out over the drain! Oh by the way, do we have any extra pair of pants around here as well?"

"No, I don't think we do...sorry. I think we only have a few spare shirts and that's it."

"That's OK. I guess they'll dry eventually so long as those darn pranksters don't pull off ANY MORE out of the blue stunts that involve water! Let's hope the old 'bucket o' water was their last prank of the year cause really, if they have more stuff up their sleeve, I don't think I can take much more of it! This morning was bad enough, so bad that it had everyone behind schedule, including me but hopefully we're all caught up now, right?"

"Yeah, for sure! There, the boilers are re-filled once more for a few hours at least. Now to re-fire this one...like so and finally do the maintenance check."

"Oh, and remember Sue to record the pressure and temperature gauges as well as the oil gauge. Also, make sure the flame is doing what it's suppose to be doing, especially in the furnace!" advised Louella as she finished wringing out her shirt and went back into the office.

"Sure thing, Louella! Don't worry, I know what I am doing, now get some darn clothes on girl! You're making me cold just by looking at you!"

"Alright, alright...sheesh...Goofball!"

"I heard that, Narbo!"

"Who are you calling a 'Narbo', Sue?"

"Well, who are you calling a 'Goofball', Ms. Hawkins?"

"Ah, Touche!"

* * *

"Hey dudes!" Joey called out when he saw Wheels and Snake finally enter the cafeteria during lunch hour. "Over here."

Wheels and Snake quickly headed over to the table Joey was at and sat down, one taking out their lunch which contained a tuna fish sandwich, a juice box and some cookies while the other just popped open a small bag of Sour Cream and Onion chips.

"So, how many pranks did you manage to pull off while we were at Borden?" Snake asked, taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Just one and it was so hilarious! Oh man, I wish you guys could have been here to see it!

I had the entire math class roaring between the desks so hard, Ms. Schuyler couldn't even gain back control!"

Wheels and Snake gave each other a look of grimace before looking back at Joey.

"What did you do?" They both asked.

"I managed to give Louella a shower with the old bucket of water prank! I figured she was in desperate need of one after having about five cans of shaving cream dumped upon her head.

I got her good through! So, what do you guys say we finish up these lunches quickly so we can get the last and final prank set up?"

"Joey, I think we've done enough. We've pulled off every known prank in the book today! What else is there left to do?" interrogated Snake.

Joey then lifted up the container of paint from his bag to answer Snake's question along with a bag of feathers.

Wheels immediately put a hand to his face, shaking his head in disbelief. "Joey, are you sure you really want to go through with this cause I don't think it's such a good idea. You can get into some major, serious trouble here if you go along with this. There's a fine line between having fun and going too far and this...this right here, the paint and feathers, above and beyond too far. If you decide to go ahead with this prank Joey, we won't back you up on this. As far as I'm concerned, we've had our fun for today. All those other pranks were fine and dandy but this...it's cruel, mean and downright hateful. Seriously, just what had Louella ever done to you personally that you would resort to this extreme measure? All she ever did was call you a goofball and that was it. Maybe she was just having a bad day, but does that give you the right to be a complete jerk in return by doing all these pranks on her for no apparent reason? Of course not. She's only doing her job, one that doesn't get much appreciation in return and you're only making things worse for not only her, but for the rest of her staff as well."

Joey couldn't believe what he was hearing from his two bestest buddies.

"Guys, what is up with you two this year? This isn't like you at all. You're both been such downers for most of the day, especially you Snake. Always voicing your concerns and being so worried about getting caught. I bet if we did this all last year, you guys I'm sure would have been all over it without a single care. What's changed?"

"It's called growing up, Joey. Being mature!" Snake said as he finished up his sandwich and juice box. "Maybe you should start trying it for yourself!"

"Wheels...?"

"I'm sorry Joey but Snake has a point...we're both in Ninth Grade now which means it's basically time to leave childish things behind, and that even goes without saying doing ridiculous pranks on innocent people who simply don't deserve it. Besides, to be truthfully honest, I really don't care to get caught by Mr. Lawrence and then having to face a very long and boring lecture with the old Bag as a result of it later on! If you go through with this Joey, you're on your own!"

With that said, both Snake and Wheels got up and left the table in hopes they had talked some sense into their mischief making friend, but it was highly doubtful.

"Who needs them anyway..." Joey began as he began gathering his things, carefully placing the container of paint back into his bag, along with the feathers. "Time for me to end this April Fools Day with a splash of color! Hope you like yellow, Louella!"


	4. The last laugh

When lunch was over, it was back to usual business as classes once again resumed and Louella, now fresh from her much needed break began making her way down towards the cafeteria to clean it up along with Sue, Tammy and Mary since the guys were all still hard at work picking up toilet paper from the trees outside in front of the school.

"Hey Louella, have you gone and checked on the guys? How are they doing? Did they get most of the toilet paper cleaned up yet?" Mary inquired as they entered the cafeteria.

"No, but Sue did. She wouldn't let me do anything else all morning other than to just take a load off and relax for a bit in the office. Speaking of which, Sue...what's the report?" Louella asked, pulling out a rag from the pocket of her pants and began sweeping down tables.

"Well, for the most part, all of the trees next to the building have been done. They now only have the trees on the left side of the yard to do as well as those located near the sidewalks, which will be the most trickiest due to the risk of the power-lines nearby but other than that, Josh says they hope to have it all done by Six O'clock tonight, maybe seven, tops." affirmed Sue.

"Seven, really? Great...just great. That's an hour over time!"

"They're making good progress through, Louella. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Let's just focus on getting the rest of the day over and done with."

"I hope you're right Sue...anyway, I'll be right back. I'm going to go fetch the mop and bucket from the closet down the hall."

"Uh, Louella, maybe it would be best if I go get the mop and bucket..." offered Tammy, quickly rushing over to stop Louella from making her way out of the cafeteria. "You know, just in case anything else...happens"

"No Tammy, it's OK. I'll be fine, alright? You just focus on sweeping the floor. I won't be long..." Louella assured as she left the cafeteria and began making her way down the hall towards the closet.

Once she got there, she took a long deep breath as she placed her hand upon the door knob.

"Please don't let there be anymore unexpected surprises..." she muttered to herself as she slowly twisted the knob to the side then carefully pulled the door open.

Her eyes scanned every nook and cranny of the closet, making sure everything was in their rightful place and that there was nothing unusual sticking out before taking a step inside.

"Finally...everything seems to be in order here in this closet, thank goodness!" Louella continued as she then began to gather the things she needed. "OK, now let's get this bucket filled up with lukewarm water, add a few drops of this floor cleaner here...mental note to self to order more bottles cause we're definitely going to be in need of them soon, grab this mop here and..."

Before she even had time to react, she was instantly covered in something slimy and gooey.

It was all over her hair, her face and most of her uniform as well as the walls, door and floor.

"Guys, Louella just got fooled again!" she could faintly hear Tammy yell out from the cafeteria door as quick paced footsteps approached. "I knew I shouldn't have let you go fetch the mop and bucket yourself!"

"Oh...Louella, are you alright?" Sue asked as she quickly pulled out a clean rag, wiping the paint off Louella's face so she could see, breathe and talk again.

"Not really...I don't even know what had happened. I went to grab the mop and next thing I know, I'm covered in something slimy and gooey...Ugh, it's all over the place...ptui, it's in my mouth, up my nose...all over my hair."

"Paint...and feathers." Mary replied as she gingerly picked one of the feathers off Louella's forehead.

"Darn them..." Louella growled as she began making her way down the hall towards the stairwell. "I am so going to get to the bottom of this once and for all...I'm going to see Mr. Lawrence and let him know what's been going on today! Not sure how long I'll be girls, but just try to do your best to stay on schedule. Don't worry about me alright? I'll be back when I can!"

"Uh-oh...someone is going to get it!" Tammy sang. "So...um, what are we going to do about this mess? We simply can't leave it...it'll dry up and leave a stain, I'm sure."

"No worries girls. Tammy, you and Mary handle this...I'll handle the cafeteria." ordered Sue.

"Are you sure you can handle that all by yourself, Sue? Should we at least get one of the guys to lend a hand?" Mary asked concerningly.

"No, no...no need. They're too busy themselves. We can do this, alright? Believe in yourself and forget your fears and doubts, remember? Now let's get back to work, otherwise we'll also be doing some major overtime ourselves and I don't think Louella would want that!"

"Alright Sue...if you insist, but I doubt we're going to be able to keep with our schedules now." Tammy replied reluctantly. "Mary, I'll handle the floor, you get started on scrapping the paint off the door and walls. Can you get the bucket out of the closet OK without getting it through the pile of paint, Sue?"

"Just barely...almost have it...there. Phew, got it. Well, at least none of the paint managed to find it's way into the bucket thank goodness...the mop on the other hand, oh yuck and look at what we have here...the container attached to the mop disguised as a bottle of cleaner. No wonder Louella thought the closet was in the clear! Ugh, I hope she finds out who did this and give them heck for it!"

* * *

In the main office, Doris Bell was busy working on typing a letter Mr. Lawrence wanted for an upcoming staff meeting with School Officials when Louella came storming in...

"Oh my gosh, Louella what happened to you?"

"Oh nothing Doris, just another ridiculous April Fools Prank. Is he in?"  
"Why yes he is..." Doris replied, clearly still in shock over Louella's appearance.

"Is he busy?"

"I'll give him a ring...hold on? Uh, yes Mr. Lawrence...Louella would like to speak with you. Um...it's actually quite urgent...alright...you can go right in, Louella. Is there anything else I can get for you, a towel or something?"

"No Doris, that's quite alright! I'm fine." She replied as she stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. "Mr. Lawrence?"

"Yes Louella, what can I do for you?" He asked, too wrapped up in his paperwork to even look up and take notice.

When she didn't respond, he finally glanced up from his paper only to see that his Head Custodian was completely covered head to toe in yellow paint and feathers. "Louella, what happened?"

"An entire day packed full of evil pranks...that's what happened! It all started with the toilet paper out front, followed by a bucket full of shaving cream which then lead to a very cold bath shortly afterwards and now, it's apparently art time. The project? Dunk the janitor in paint and feathers according to Mary..."

"And do you know who's been doing these types of pranks, Ms. Hawkins?"

"Nope...at first I suspected that maybe a few kids from Borden High came around to do the toilet paper incident...but then when I got dunked with a bucket full of shaving cream an hour later, I knew right there and then that it had to be someone attending THIS school and so help me I am going to get to the bottom of this. I think I have the slightest idea who may be behind these pranks, but I can't really start accusing or pointing fingers now, can I?"

Mr. Lawrence slowly shook his head... "Unfortunately you are right about that Louella, but there's always a way around that. We need to do a little detective work here first...I think I may know exactly who has some vital information in regards to this April Fools' prankster." He then proceeded to pick up his phone. "Doris, could you call Archie Simpson and Derek Wheeler to my office please? Thank you."

Within seconds of the call, Doris made the announcement over the PA system: "Would Archie Simpson and Derek Wheeler please report to Mr. Lawrence's office. Archie Simpson and Derek Wheeler, please report to Mr. Lawrence's office."

* * *

In Mr. Garcia's class, Snake and Wheels glanced at one another as the rest of the class oohed and snickered.

"Alright now, knock it off." Mr. Garcia scolded. "Archie, Derek...go on."

Slowly the two boys got up out of their seats, carefully squeezing between Lucy and Nancy's desks and made their way to the classroom door, taking one last look of the class before stepping out into the hallway.

"I wonder what Mr. Lawrence wants?" Snake asked as they quietly began to make their way down towards the main office.

"You don't think Joey pulled off that paint and feathers prank, did he? Cause if he did, I am NOT going to defend him...I hate to say this Snake, but Joey has gone too far this time and truthfully, I think it's about time he face up to his mistakes!"

"We basically had nothing to do with this prank...the others I guess we'll have to fess up to cause we were partially responsible for setting them up...but this one was technically all Joey's doing. Here we are. Doris, you wanted to see us?"

"Oh yes...Derek and Archie. Mr. Lawrence is expecting you, please, go right on in."

Archie took a deep breath as he and Derek approached Mr. Lawrence's door, mentally preparing themselves for what they were about to see. "I hate to think what's on the other side of this door Wheels."

"Me too, but there's no turning back now..." Wheels replied as he opened the door. "Oh no...Louella."

"Come on in Boys...close the door and have a seat." Mr. Lawrence ordered. "It seems we've been having some major issues today involving one of our most hard working, dedicated custodians. Throughout the course of the day, many pranks have been pulled, most of them on Louella Hawkins here. As you can see, she's become victim to yet again another harmful prank. Maybe you two could shed some light as to whom is responsible for these actions."

"Mr. Lawrence...we do know who's behind all of these pranks." Wheels began.

"Yeah, but we must confess that out of all four of them, we've only been involved in the first two...the toilet paper incident and the shaving cream. That's it. Joey Jeremiah was responsible for the other two pranks."

"I see...well boys, I appreciate your honesty...but we cannot let you go with a simple warning. I'm afraid you'll both have to face at least two weeks worth of detention which you'll start serving today, after school. Is that perfectly OK with you, Louella?"

"I see no problem with that at all, Sir." Louella replied curtly.

"You may both head back to class...and I will indeed inform your parents and guardians" Mr. Lawrence said, excusing the two from his office before standing up and began following Derek and Archie out as they murmured among themselves about what their parents or in Derek's case, Grandparents are going to say or react. "Excuse me for just a second Louella. Doris, may I have the intercom please?"

"Why of course..." Doris said as she flicked the switch to turn the PA system on then handed Mr. Lawrence the microphone.

Giving a harsh, stern clearing of his throat, he then made the announcement: "Would Joey Jeremiah please report to my office _IMMEDIATELY_. Joey Jeremiah, please report to my office _IMMEDIATELY_! Thank you Doris. When Joey gets here, have him come straight into my office."

"I most certainly will, Mr. Lawrence!"

With that said, he quickly went back into his office and closed the door.

* * *

Joey knew he was in extreme deep trouble just by the tone in Mr. Lawrence's voice over the PA system, reasons why he slowly made his way down the hall, stopping every so often to get a drink of water from the fountains that he passed on his way to the office.

'Man, I hope Wheels and Snake hadn't ratted me out about the whole April Fools thing...I bet they did though...why else would they have been called to the office first before me?' he muttered to himself.

Another announcement rang through the quiet halls and classrooms of the school, this time by Doris Bell herself sounding very impatient: "Would Joey Jeremiah please report to Mr. Lawrence's office immediately. Joey Jeremiah, please report to Mr. Lawrence's office immediately."

'Alright, alright...I'm coming. Sheesh. Guess it's time to face the music. Doris, you wanted to..."

"Go right on in Joey." she replied sternly, not even looking up to address him. "He has been expecting you for some time now."

Joey swallowed hard as he reached for the knob, slowly twisting it to the side until he heard that dreaded little click then pulled the door open, revealing a not so pleased principal in Mr. Lawrence and a very livid custodian in Louella Hawkins.

Upon seeing Louella through, Joey's fear quickly turned to flat out laughter.

"You really think this is funny to you, Joey?" Louella asked, fuming.

"Now Louella, I know you're upset, but try to keep your emotions under control here...Joey, have a seat." Mr. Lawrence ordered sternly.

"What happened to you, Louella?" Joey asked between laughs. "You're an absolute mess!"

"I think you know darn well what happened to me, Goofball. You're the one who had set this whole thing up starting with plastering toilet paper all over the trees out front which nearly startled the living HECK out of me as I arrived for work first thing this morning and has for most of the entire day kept many of my guys busy outside cleaning it all up...then I get a bucket of shaving cream dumped upon my head in the boiler room followed by a big, cold shower from a dirty mop bucket as I went to get last week's worksheet for Doris, and now this..." Louella choked, trying now to hold back the tears. "Joey, how could you do such a thing to me? What have I done to you to deserve this kind of cruel treatment? I don't deserve any of this...I'm only human. I work extremely hard to keep this school cleaned and properly maintained for you to have an education, for you to have a safe working environment to nurture, grow and learn in and this is the thanks I get?"

Joey didn't know what to say, or do for that matter as he kept his eyes on Louella's.

"Louella, look...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. It was just a joke! Can't you take a joke?"

"Oh, I think you did Joey...you hurt me real deep today. You may not know it, but you have and yes I can take a joke Mr. Jeremiah, but there's a fine line between joking around and going too far which is what you have done. Mr. Lawrence, I'm gonna head home to clean this mess up and to think about what suitable punishment would be appropriate for Mr. Jeremiah here...what's your ultimatum?"

"Well, there's really not much else we can do other than to give Joey here a two week suspension."

"Suspension? No...no please Mr. Lawrence, you can't do that...my parents would kill me." Joey pleaded. "Can I just serve a two weeks worth of detention instead?"

"I'm afraid not Mr. Jeremiah. Your actions are severe enough to be worthy of a possible serious punishment. Louella, you go on home and get freshened up. I will keep Mr. Jeremiah here until you return with your verdict."

"Thank you Mr. Lawrence...and just so you know Joey...whatever punishment I choose, you will be doing, rather you like it or not and yes, your parents will indeed be notified regardless! You should have thought of THAT before you decided to be an absolute, inconsiderate jerk! Goofball."

Wiping her eyes, she then stepped out of Mr. Lawrence's office.

"Doris, I'm going to head home for a bit to get freshened up, but I will be back. I can't leave my crew hanging..."

"Alright Louella, are you going to be OK?" Doris asked as she took out the binder that contained the staffing schedules and marked down the time Louella stepped out for a bit.

"Yeah, I just need a moment to myself that's all. I shouldn't be long. Just go home, take a shower to wash this gunk off of me, get a fresh, clean uniform on and think about a decent, suitable punishment for that goofball in there! If Sue wonders where I am, tell her I'll be back, OK? Thanks."

With that said, Louella began to make her way out of the school towards home, catching the attention of her male crew who were very shocked to see her in such terrible condition.

"Louella, holy guacamole what the heck happened to you?" Josh asked as he quickly rushed down the ladder.

It was then Louella could no longer hold back her emotions as she began breaking down in tears, causing Josh to embrace her in his arms, despite the fact that she was still covered in wet, yellow paint. At that moment, he really didn't care less if he got paint all over his uniform...all that did matter was that his tough as nails boss was extremely, emotionally distraught and was in need of some massive support.

"Hey...hey Louella sweetie, it's OK..." He murmured, carefully stroking her back.

"I work so hard and this is the thanks I get..." She cried into Josh's shoulder. "Out of all the students in this school, one has to have a massive problem with me and I don't know why that is. Why does he hate me so much?"

"Who is it, Louella?" Lou Robbins asked, quickly joining alongside Josh. "I thought everyone here at this school liked you!"

"Joey."

"Oh no...that obnoxious kid!" Scott sighed, shaking his head. "I take it from your appearance, he went and did something really nasty, didn't he?"

"Yeah, throughout most of the day he had been pulling pranks left, right and centre...all of them aimed directly at me. First he did all of this, followed by a bucket of shaving cream which lead to a very cold shower shortly afterwards, then ending it with the old paint and feathers. I've never felt so humiliated in all my life."

"So, are you going to be heading home for the rest of the day or what's the deal here?" Josh asked, finally releasing Louella from the comforting embrace.

"I'm going to head home to wash up and then return...I can't leave you guys hanging like this, not when we still have so much to do."

"What about Sue, Tammy and Mary? Are they alright?"

"Yeah, they're fine...I only hope they can manage without me for the next half hour or so...just keep doing what you're doing through guys, alright? I don't care for all of us to get way behind of schedule again like we did first thing this morning...I won't be long. And Josh, thanks for the comfort just now! Sorry about your shirt."

Josh smiled as Louella made her way across the street towards her house.

"Alright guys, you heard what the boss said...back to work!"

* * *

Once inside her house, Louella let out a sigh as she closed the door behind her and wiped the tears that still continued to fall from her eyes.

"I know I shouldn't let something so juvenile get the better of me like this...but still, this was completely uncalled for. This paint is all over my uniform, my name-tag, my keys...and I don't even know if my clothes are forever stained or not. I'd better head up to the bathroom and get started on cleaning all this up before I end up getting it all over my carpet. Last thing I need is to have a permanent stain to forever remind myself of this miserable, humiliating day."

She began up the stairs and into the bathroom where the first thing she did was plug up the sink and filled it with a mix of hot and cold water.

Then she removed her name-tag and keys and placed them into the sink to soak.

"And now for this uniform...I'm going to have to give them a rinse in the tub first before I throw these into the laundry hamper...I hope there's no permanent stains on them." she continued, turning on the faucets. "Yuck...this is so gross."

She threw her shirt into the tub along with her pants, letting the water soak through the fabrics for a bit before wringing them out and throwing them into the hamper to be washed at a later time.

"Now that's been taken care of, time for that shower..."

She remained in the shower for a good ten minutes, letting the hot water soothe away her troubles as well as the yellow mess in her once spiked, bleach blonde hair.

When she was finished, she got back into a nice, clean uniform, washed her name-tag and keys, dried and restyled her hair to it's original spiky state and then proceeded to made her way back to Degrassi Junior High.

"Hey, look who's back!" Lou announced when he saw Louella come across the street with a big smirk upon her face. "And by the look on your face Louella, you've got something major up your sleeve!"

"That I do Lou. Get ready cause this coming Sunday, we're going to have ourselves a new team-mate join us! I've decided to give Joey a taste of our own medicine. I'm going to make him a Custodian! For two whole weeks, he's got no other choice than to work for ME, rather he likes it or not! Just came to me as I got out of the shower. He's going to get a first hand look and feel what WE go through on a daily day to day basis. Oh, I can't wait to deliver the news! By the way boys, great job you're doing...keep this up and hopefully you'll be done by four, five o'clock tops! Now if you'll all excuse me, I got some punishing business to tend to!" Louella laughed as she made her way up to the main entrance.

"Hey Louella...welcome back! You feeling OK? Doris let me know you had to step out for a bit." Mary exclaimed as Louella walked in.

"Yeah, I'm fine Mary...thanks for asking. I just had to go home and freshen up a bit. Anyway, I've got some business to attend to first and then I'll be back in action...Doris, I'm back! Any questions while I was out? Any updates?"

"Um, not really...Sue and the girls are doing well...they just finished cleaning up the paint...no stains to be reported, thank goodness. The cafeteria is all done...now they're just going around doing touch ups to the washrooms."

"Great! Yeah, I just saw Mary sweeping up the hallway out there so I'm glad they didn't get too far behind. Thanks."

Louella gently tapped on Mr. Lawrence's door before heading on in as Doris pulled out the scheduling binder, signing her back in again for work.

"Ah, Louella. Welcome back...have you come to a conclusion yet?" Mr. Lawrence asked, keeping his eye on Joey who now looked extremely nervous as to what punishment Louella had in mind that he was going to face!

"I most certainly have, Mr. Lawrence." Louella began as she then faced Joey. "Joey, get ready because starting this coming Sunday...you are going to be working for ME. That's right, for two whole weeks...I got you! You're going to find out first hand what being a hardworking, dedicated custodian is really all about. You're mine, Goofball! Now, if it's OK with you Mr. Lawrence, I'd like to have the authority to contact Mrs. Jeremiah if you haven't already to let her know what's happened today and what's going to happen this coming Sunday.

"Well Ms. Hawkins, I've already gotten in contact with Mrs. Jeremiah letting her know that her son is in massive trouble for his actions today, however, I did inform her that you may be getting in contact with her sometime this afternoon to discuss matters further so yes you may have that authority. Now, since this is similar to that of a suspension which lasts for 20 school days, for the next remaining days Joey, you are not allowed to attend classes starting tomorrow but as for Sunday, you are advised to be here for your custodial duties that will last for the next two weeks. You are to follow Ms. Hawkins orders and do as she says. No excuses, ifs ands or buts about it. Do we both make ourselves perfectly clear?"

"Yes Sir..." Joey replied.

"Good. Now, Louella will escort you to your locker. You are to get your things and then leave this facility. You are not to return until April 7th when you are scheduled to be here...exactly what time would you like to start Joey off at, Louella?"

"I think a Six o'clock start would be good so Joey, I ask you to be here by 5:45 AM sharp! Don't be late. Is there anything else you'd like to add here Mr. Lawrence?"

"No Ms. Hawkins, I believe we have everything covered. You are dismissed. Good luck Mr. Jeremiah. Go home now and think about your actions and don't you dare consider this to be a week long holiday because it most certainly isn't!"

"I won't, Sir..."

Louella opened the door and allowed Joey to exit first, following very close behind him out of the office and up the stairs to his locker.

"Louella, I am really sorry that I hurt you...it was just a joke." Joey tried to exclaim but Louella didn't want to hear any of it.

"Shhh, there are still classes in progress. Just be quiet and get your stuff. Quite frankly I really don't want to hear anything more from you today."

As soon as Joey got his things from his locker, Louella then escorted him back down to the main entrance.

"I'll see you on Sunday, bright and early Joey. No excuses!"

Defeated, Joey began to make his way home, not exactly looking forward to the repercussions that await him the moment he gets into the door from his parents.

* * *

"Yes...yes indeed Louella. Here he is now...I will definitely have a word with him and you will indeed see him first thing Sunday morning at 5:45 AM. Alright...try to have a good day regardless. Thank you, you too. Bye-bye." Mrs. Jeremiah got off the phone. "Joey, could you come in here please. We like to have a word with you."

Joey let out a sigh as he stepped into the living room, seeing his father and mother sitting on the couch looking very upset and extremely disappointed.

"Hi Mom, Hi Dad..."

"Have a seat, Joey. That was Louella Hawkins on the phone just now, informing us about your up and coming punishment. Now, Mr. Lawrence has given you a four day suspension as a result of your disrespectful actions towards Ms. Hawkins but you are required to be there Sunday morning to do your first ever Custodian shift at 5:45 AM, sharp!"

"Mom, what I did to Louella, they were just jokes...that's all. I didn't mean to harm anyone!" Joey cried in defence.

"There's a fine line between doing a joke, Joey and going a step too far which unfortunately you have done. The toilet paper incident would have been fine...but the other pranks? Shaving cream in a bucket, water in a mop pail and then dumping a container of yellow paint on her...it's understandable she is very hurt right now." Mr. Jeremiah addressed. "And you are very lucky she didn't decide to punish you even further. What may be a joke to you, may not be a joke to someone else...especially if that joke meant harm to the person. Louella seriously could have had you charged and perhaps even arrested for assault, even if you didn't mean it. Technically Joey, what you did to her was assault."

"Right now Ms. Hawkins feels very hurt and upset. She feels as through you have such a personal vendetta against her, that you would pull these horrible, disgusting pranks. Tell me Joey, do you hate Louella? Why did you do this in the first place?"

"No...Mom, I don't hate Louella...I have nothing against her at all."

"Really, Joey? Cause it really sounds like you do."

"Dad, I don't...trust me. The reason why I did these pranks today was to get back at her for calling me a 'goofball'. That's it, I swear. I have nothing against her, I have no problems with her...Alright, the reason why she called me a goofball was because I had snapped at her, and then later on said 'not bad for a woman' when she had fixed the furnace back in December."

"Joey, you know how sexist that sounds? Did you really say that to Louella?"

Joey remained silent, not really wanting to answer that but then he had no other choice.

"Yeah...I did but I thought nothing of it when I said it. I didn't think women were even capable of doing things like that..."

"Joey...women are just as capable as men are in anything they do in life. Just because you're of a certain sexual orientation, doesn't mean they're limited on their abilities. I think you should go to your room and start thinking about everything we've just talked about. Think about what you've done today and how Louella feels...think about how you've treated her over the years. At suppertime, we'll call you down when it's ready."

Without saying another word, Joey did just that.

* * *

By the end of the day, Louella was nearly exhausted but she still continued to work as she got busy sweeping the hallway floors while students quickly rushed by her wanting to get home after a long day of learning.

"Goodnight Louella." said Erica with a smile.

"Goodnight, girls."

"Louella...um, before we go do our time in detention, we just wanted to apologize for today. We really didn't want to. It was all Joey's idea but anytime we protest something...he simply doesn't want to listen. We've tried to stop him." addressed Wheels.

"Thanks for your apology boys, but it still doesn't change what took place today. You're very lucky the guys managed to get all the paper cleaned up before the end of the day and that we'll soon to be wrapping things up here ourselves. The school board doesn't like it when we have to do unnecessary overtime. They expect all of us to be done at a decent hour. We start at Six and get things finished by 4:30, 5:00 tops. With all these pranks pulled on me today, it unfortunately brought us all to a near complete stand still...causing us all to be behind schedule, but we still managed to get things worked out. You guys better head to detention or else you're going to be written up by whoever it is supervising."

"Right...Night Louella." said Snake as he and Wheels began making their way to detention.

"Night guys." She said. "and have fun!"

The two boys laughed as they left down the stairs.


End file.
